Maybe You're Just Not Meant To Be
by Seggy
Summary: Garrus is in love. Shepard... not so much.


Garrus uncomfortably stood in front of a door, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he stared at it in silence. His uncharacteristic nervousness was palpable as he eyes the unmoving metal construct that led to what he was currently deliberating over. Thousands of thoughts ran through his head, a mystery to all but himself, as he closed his eyes and mulled over his dilemma.

Hidden away in a corner of the Normandy's deck, the doorway he faced was out of most of his crew mates' sight, but it was only a matter of time until one came across him. Quick steps sounded behind him, starting from the elevator, until a voice joined them.

"Garrus!" He turned, slowly, towards the female interrupting him. Tali, the Quarian mechanist that Shepard had picked up scant minutes after himself, looked up at him with wide, curious eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Tali," he acknowledged listlessly. She was one of the friendliest of the crew to him, but he was not in a position to act likewise at the moment. The shorter alien stood before him for a beat, waiting for him to continue, before rubbing her hands together awkwardly.

"Is there someone in there?" She peeked over his side, towards the still-closed door.

"Uh, yes." The Quarian nodded, her shining eyes closing in thought.

"It's... good to see you away from the Mako, for once," she tried to make conversation. Garrus' mandibles trembled slightly in annoyance, before he forced himself to respond.

"Calibrating its systems helps me pass time." Tali nodded understanding. "And... it's good to see you out of the engine room. I never see you out of there." He forced himself to be amiable to the young woman. Between the xenophobic humans making up most of the crew, the always-occupied Kaidan Alenko, the socially-retarded Asari in the Medbay, and Wrex, Tali was one of the few to go out of her way to be nice to him.

The Quarian tilted her head. "Oh, well, the commander and I usually talk down there, but I thought I'd come up for a change. To spare Shepard the elevator ride." She tittered slightly, and Garrus grinned halfheartedly in return. However, somewhere in his head, a switch flipped. "So what are you here for?"

The Turian dodged the question by asking her, in return, "Is that all you do? Talk to Shepard and sit around watching the engine?" He eased his stance slightly, so as to keep her from taking it as a slight against her.

Tali leaned back almost imperceptibly, eyes widening, before she took into account his body language. "Oh!" She giggled. "Well, that's almost everything I do, yes. The Normandy is really amazing; there's almost nothing for me to do!"

He nodded, before raising his chin in a painfully fake expression of pride. "It's the perfect storm born of human and Turian ingenuity."

The Quarian, facing his back, nodded audibly. Garrus looked back for a moment to make sure she wasn't damaging herself with the head movements, before going back to staring at the door in front of him.

"Yes, it is! I've been on some Turian- and Human-built ships in the flotilla, and they were all distinctly-different. The Normandy is a very weird mix of the two, but I guess that's just innovation, right?" She giggled once more. The taller of the two hung his head slightly, bemoaning how talkative she happened to be. "So," she returned to her first query. "What're you here for?"

"Oh, I just need to-" The door in front of them opened. Shepard, curious about the voices outside, had come to check out their sources.

"Garrus? Tali? What do you two need?" The Commander peered at the two curiously.

"Uh." With two pairs of bright eyes focusing on him, Garrus shifted his weight between his feet. "Well, it's nothing important, Shepard. I'll come back later." He hurriedly turned back to the Quarian, and pushed her towards the doorway as he walked away. Leaving behind the Commander and Machinist, the Turian made a beeline towards the elevator.

"How weird," the Commander commented with a raised eyebrow, before turning to Tali. "Well, what did you need?"

"Oh, I just thought it'd be good to come up here to talk to you instead of making you go all the way down to see me."

The Spectre nodded with a small smile, before waving her in. "Oh, come in then. Where were we yesterday?"

-I-

Garrus sat against one of the Mako's wheels, arms crossed petulantly. Wrex, standing across from him on the lower deck, eyed him with amusement. Eventually, the Turian growled at the Krogan. "What is it?"

The aged Battlemaster shook his head with a chuckle. Nearby, Williams jumped up with a panicked look in her eyes, before finding the source of the loud, disturbing noise and returning to her rifle. In the meantime, Wrex walked over to the dejected metal-carapaced alien.

"You look like a Varren who's had a meal dangled in front of him then given to an Alpha to eat." Receiving a confused look, he tried again. "You've been within sight of something you seek, but then had it taken away from you."

"You could say so," Garrus sighed.

"You sound like a lovesick pup," the Krogan pointed out. He shook his head, settling down beside Garrus. The Mako shook slightly as his hump bumped up against its side. "Is that what you lost? Some affection?"

The Turian peered towards the other hardy alien with wide eyes. Wrex groaned. "Idiot youngsters. Don't you know? You have to fight for what you want; either love or whatever it is you seek. Just letting go and wallowing in grief won't do anything, especially if you think someone else has nabbed it."

"What the hell would you know about that?" Garrus growled.

"I'm over a thousand years old," the Krogan deadpanned in return. "I know something about everything."

"How would I go about doing that?"

Wrex eyed him strangely. "You're asking me for relationship advice, Turian?"

"Sure. You do know a bit about everything, so you should know how to help me out."

Wrex chuckled, a disquieting sound that drew a glare from Chief Williams. "Sure, why not. It's not like I have much else to do. Who is it?"

Ashley was eventually driven out of the lower deck altogether after a minutes later, scowling angrily at the two aliens by the Mako. Between the laughing Krogan, whose loud amusement was grating on her ears, and the shouting Turian uselessly punching Wrex in anger, she became too aggravated to work on her weaponry.

-I-

Shepard looked up from a pile of documents as the door to the Captain's quarters opened. A Turian stood on the threshold between the deck and the room.

"Garrus. Is this about what you wanted to tell me earlier?" The Commander stood, facing the C-Sec officer. The Turian seemed uneasy for a moment, before a fiery look entered his eyes and he stepped forward. "Are you alright? Chakwas is on the other side of the deck..."

Shepard trailed off as Garrus came to a halt. They stood face to face face for a moment, the Turian breathing loudly through his nostrils. "Shepard, I..."

The Spectre raised an eyebrow. "You..."

That was when Garrus leaned in, nuzzling his snout against Shepard's nose.

The Spectre, a befuddled look on his face, stepped back. "Garrus, what the fu-"

"I love you! Take me!" The Turian threw himself at his Commander. Shepard screamed, dragged down by two-hundred kilograms of Turian. In less than a moment, they found themselves on the floor, C-Sec straddling the human under him.

Shepard's eyes widened, surprised expression slowly morphing into horror. "Oh god, no, Garrus, get off."

"No, not this time!" For all the genetic treatment Shepard had undergone as an N7 inductee, there was no way Garrus would allow himself to be pushed off.

"This time? What the hell are you talking about?" The question went unanswered as Garrus grabbed the Commander's shirt with sharp, ungloved talons.

The ensuing sexual assault was halted by the sound of the door opening behind them. The Turian turned his head quickly, focusing on the intruder. Tali stood at the entrance, datapad in hand until she dropped it while looking on at the scene she had walked into.

"Sh-Shepard? Garrus?" Said Turian growled at his perceived rival for the Commander's affection.

"Get o-" His shouted order was interrupted by a fist smashing into his left mandible. Although stronger than any human in a position such as the one he'd been in previously, Garrus was as susceptible to a punch in the face from a genetically-enhanced super-soldier as anyone.

He rolled off Shepard from the impact, and soon found himself with the Commander atop him. He growled suggestively at the soldier, who smacked him once more.

"Garrus, what the fuck are you doing?" Shepard demanded, as Tali walked up quickly. Garrus babbled some gibberish, blinking rapidly.

"Uh, Commander. I think you gave him a concussion."

"Damn, I thought it'd work." The Turian finally found himself, muttering angrily. Knuckles were rapped on his chest armor, and he looked up into the Commander's aggravated face. "Oh. I'm sorry, Shepard."

"I don't think sorry cuts it, Garrus. How did you get it in your head to do this?" Garrus shifted uncomfortably under the Spectre.

"I... Shepard. I love you."

He received simultaneous blinks from the duo above him, and Tali repeated the word in befuddlement. "Love."

"Yes. Commander... I've never known anyone like you. No one so magnificent in battle, so smooth in diplomacy, so... beautiful." He reached up, a talon slowly moving towards Shepard's face. The soldier leaned out of its reach with an extremely uncomfortable expression. "Boss... I... I've never loved a man more than I love you."

"Who put you up to this?"

"No one. It's what I feel, Shepard, even if Wrex was the one that got me to go out and try to get what I strove for," the Turian explained, disappointment tinting his voice. "I guess this means you refuse?"

"Yes, yes it does." Shepard had a look of vague distaste of his face. "And you took relationship advice from a thousand-year old Krogan?" He eyed the Turian strangely.

"He said the same thing, but I thought he'd be able to help me get you." Garrus paused for a beat. "Oh by the stars, what did I do?" His expression shifted from sadness to embarrassment, followed by various degrees of horror and then despair.

The Spectre got off his crew mate as he fell into a deep depression, and eyed the Quarian beside him. She looked decidedly uncomfortable at the happenings, but gestured down at Garrus with her head.

Shepard grimaced. "Look, Garrus, I'm sorry I can't reciprocate what I feel, but... I'm a soldier. It's not what we're supposed to do." Tali stepped back, egging him on with encouraging nods as she backed out of the room. "I... I mean, falling in love with team members. Although friendship is fine, falling for someone else could be a horrible liability in a mission. You might decide to save me instead of undoing all of Saren's work and saving the galaxy, for example. Such strong emotions could jeopardize everything."

Garrus desolately stood, looking up at him. "I... I understand, Shepard. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize for what you feel," the Commander supported him, patting him on the back. "Just... don't let it happen again. Get a hold of your emotions. And... don't ever listen to Wrex again."

The Turian hung his head. "Dammit, but it's so hard! Whenever I'm around you it gets so damn-"

Shepard grabbed him by the shoulders. "Garrus, please. You can act like a lovesick teen later. Get your head out of the clouds; I need you at your best, you hear?"

The C-Sec officer looked to the side silently, mulling over his superior's words.

"Yes, sir," he finally relented, shakily getting into a salute. Shepard nodded in approval, but Garrus still had something else. "One more thing, though?"

"What is it?"

"What are my odds of, say, a quickie?"

"Leave."


End file.
